Improving my cornering skills

Thank you for your Riding Skills Serials. I came across these recently when I decided that I wanted to improve my corning skills. I would characterize myself as post-entry skilled with about 30K miles, but many of those miles were two-up and my approach was very conservative. I’m 57 riding a BMW K1200LT.  I recently discovered that while riding one-up in a group ride (my first), that I could not keep up with several members in the twisties. On discussing this with one of the riders that I deeply respect, he pointed out a few of my errors. The things that he noted were things that while I knew them, out of laziness, I never incorporated them in to habit. That awareness led me to the Skills Series.  While practicing my new knowledge I came across a personal observation that I would like to share. I’m sure most might know what I going to say, but it is worth stating and pertains directly to the article related to Panic.

There is a model of learning called the “Four stages of competence.” They are; Unconscious incompetence, Conscious incompetence, Conscious competence, and Unconscious competence. Upon reading and reflecting on the Skills material, I would characterize myself nearing the “Conscious Competence” stage. However, whenever I practiced cornering maneuvers at a speed in which I experienced fear, or perhaps panic,  I would regress to the “Unconscious Incompetence.” Advancing for me meant to slow down enough to avoid that stage so that I could work forward toward Unconscious Competence. In order words, I can't form the proper habits unless I temporally suspend the panic stage during practice drills. This means suspending my desire to go fast and slow down so that I can concentrate on what I’m doing.

Jim  

Having ridden in your boots so to speak, I would suggest a specialized class that would help you focus on taking turns and developing your technique for taking those turns.  The Lee Parcs classes are wonderful for this purpose...